Easton co-valedictorians each receive scholarship

Tuesday

Jun 24, 2014 at 3:09 PMJun 24, 2014 at 3:09 PM

By Paula Voglereaston@wickeclocal.com

Though Oliver Ames High School senior Jessica Cheng missed out on the recognition of being co-valedictorian at graduation, both she and Christopher Naughton will share in the top honorís scholarship.The school committee recently voted to award both Cheng and Naughton the valedictorianís scholarship of $4,000 per year for four years rather than having the two split the award.While saying they were not setting a precedent or policy, committee members felt it was the right thing to do in this case."Just from a fairness perspective, both these students were disadvantaged," chairman Colleen Less said. "How can you give something to a student Ö and take it away after the fact."At graduation Naughton was recognized as the valedictorian and Cheng the salutatorian. It was not until two days after graduation that a final tally of grades actually revealed the two had the same grade point averageCommittee member Caroline OíNeill said when the same thing happened a decade ago, the co-valedictorians split the award."I want it really clear we are not setting a precedent," OíNeill said.While she did not think a policy should be made to give two scholarships every time there were co-valedictorians, school committee member Laurie Han said she thought some type of policy could be made regarding two valedictorians."This year Iíd like to do two scholarships. Iíd hate to have a policy every time tell us we have to do two scholarships," Han said.Less wanted to find out how the mix up happened again."My preference is to figure out what created the mistake this time. Wherever the mistake occurred needs to be addressed so it doesnít happen again," Less said.School Superintendent Michael Green said he would look into making sure there were checks and balances in place to assure it did not happen again. Green said it was undetermined where the extra money would come from to fund the second scholarship but he said it would not come from the school departmentís operating budget.Paula Vogler can be reached at 508-967-3510.

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